Ren'Py Black Incense [Prologue] [Himeros Studios]

[josephinewaters]

I like the art style. Have yet to try it, but I will.

 

[Siberian shaggy]

For now this is rubbish, let's wait a couple of months!

 

[drh64]

Seems like you never try to search and find what a NTR means. NTR is used for short of Netorare which is the japanese term for Cheating(also called cuckolding). NTR and Cheating are the same thing. The other one is NTS - short from Netorase which once again is the japanese term for Sharing(also called cuckoldry) and although there are different types of sharing,here in the games is mostly used for the cucking type(a person who enjoys watching his partner having sex with another person) but that doesn't mean it's not used as a tag for the other types of sharing too like Swinging,Hotwife and even the standart Open Relationship where the couples are allowed to have sex with other people(not like the cucking type where the guy doesn't fuck anyone,including his partner and only enjoys watching his girlfriend/wife have sex with other guys but instead where both partners are in agreement to have sex with other people if they want). And one more thing - a person who is cheated is called cuckold while a person who is been cucked either intentionally because he wants it or not intentionally and is forced to accept been cucked is called cuck - that's how you can make the difference when someone is called cuck or cuckold and find if he is been cheated or if he knows that his partner is sleeping with other people and he enjoys that.

You are preaching to the choir I know what NTR and NTS means I also know where the terms come from, but i have zero interest in games where one person cheats on another be it the man or the woman unless I can avoid it, now NTS is another matter, to me NTS is sharing, swinging, cuckolding etc I am a fan of those types of games so long as everyone knows and everyone is having fun.

 

[Jungkook89]

thx

 

[Himeros Studios]

at the beginning you're shown being in front of men and you have to undress yourself.

By the way, I haven't played it yet, but the main banner with the cultist reminds me of the film Eyes Wide Shut. It seems that the protagonist is the only woman taking part in the ritual here, though :

Who says everyone under those robes and masks is a man?

The game seems interesting so far,but i hope there will be added a option to decide wether or not our Character will have different types of surgery

I will definitely consider more customisation of looks further into the game, but at present, it would mean making a completely new version of every art asset with the main character in which would be... exhausting to say the least. My hope is that as AI continues to improve it won't be too long until I can build a workflow where I can just feed in all my images at the end and say "please keep everything the same but change the petite brunette to a blonde" and it does it reliably and quickly. At present even the top end tools like Qwen edit with LanPainter struggle a bit, but once this doesn't become a huge time sink, I'm a sucker for more player choice. At the moment though my priority is keeping the story moving!

Any anal? And I don't mean planned, I mean from the get go.

None in the prologue. I wanted to allow a variety of sexual experiences that the main character has had in the run up to the start of the story, but still wanted to leave a few big ones on the table for her to experience if she so chooses down the line.

The whole game with these graphics would be groundbreaking :

I'll consider it for my next game

Really excited to see what the stats eventually do.

There's a little sneak peak of my intention for how I will use them in the Charnelle / Esme scenes (both of whom may make appearances later in game, and they will remember if you were nice to them or not...).

The main intention is to very much use them to open up new options and branches for players. Sometimes this will mean an option or scene will only be revealed to someone with that skill (e.g. someone with high Second sight may recieve an ominous dream / someone with high Cyber may recognise an opportunity to hack into somewhere that others would be ignorant of).

Sometimes (like with the Esme branch) certain options will have a check and a pass / fail result. But here, my design philosophy is very much about there being no railroaded game overs, no trying to catch the player out. I really like how Disco Elysium did it, with failures sometimes leading to even more interesting outcomes than successes, and both outcomes leading the story on.

One thing this game definitely will not be will be one that will lock you out of a certain route unless you chose a completely hidden option two hours previously! I'm sure some people must enjoy that kind of thing as you see it a lot in games but it always frustrates me.

If you're interested in the mechanics I'm keeping it rather simple, with a pass or fail score set that the player either reaches or does not reach. Traits are tested just on the trait score. Skills are tested on the skill score + the trait score they are associated with (so a charisma check would add your charisma skill score to your empathy trait score). I'm sure as the game progresses there will be instances where there will be other modifiers that affect things as well but I don't want to overcomplicate things, very eager to avoid feature creep and just focus on delivering timely and quality updates.

The only other thing I'll add for now is traits (vitality, finesse, etc) are mostly locked in by the prologue, but the skills (martial arts, dramatics etc) will continue to improve depending on choices made!

Ahh okay, I'm good with AI, and your response to that was hilarious, but no Lez route as a fem protag, I was enjoying the build up, but hit a hard block when I had to choose which boy I had to sleep with. I wish you great success with your game.

Overall I enjoyed it.

I too would've preferred to not be forced to sleep with the guy(s) in the beginning. Remaking the story with this mind would've added an immense amount of work and I can tell how much went into this. Tons of options to start with.

Definitely missed any issues with the AI art. Guess I'm not really looking for things to complain about in a product I didn't pay for.

Good to hear there will be more lesbian choices later on. I'm a sucker for the "straight girl become a lesbian" arc. Her thoughts when she was with Mathilde were well done and sexy.

Pretty solid start. A little annoying only one Gap Year choice has a lesbian option.

Thank you for the kind words and for trying the game! Since the character has to start with a boyfriend at the start of the game (I do need some common points at the start of the story) the prologue was designed with this in mind. I am also a sucker for the "straight girl becomes a lesbian" arc though, and there will be plenty of routes where this will be possible (there's a reason I made sure to put the sprites of her flatmates into the prologue...).

I almost wrote an entire book, practically was, so many pages, once in college. I was in a perfect flow state to and it was about will to keep going and Gods and other worlds... I lost the ending and I gave up on it. It's a lot of work but it felt so good writing ideas down. I once thought I could maybe make a game on it but had no idea what to do and I would be very unlikely to get an ending on my story that was just as good as the one I wrote, I have it somewhere on a drive or a draft of it that probably looked like a freshman high school student wrote it which it was but I continued from where I started. Maybe I finish it one day. I love this idea and hope you continue it, I'll give a rating after I complete. Good luck .

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing what you think! Yes I have also written a book before that needs a redraft, it's a mission and a half, never too late to go back to it if you're interested in making a game as well then happy to answer any questions about my process, it took a lot of trial and error so happy to share what I've learned so far!

 

[Manshino]

Very very very promising game. Good work!

 

[Swiver]

Wish it didn't have to be shit london, then again, where else would this story fit haha.

Art seems aight. Concept seems sick and twisted.

Given it's a corruption story with secret societies etc I'm assuming the kinky tags coming once the story progresses...?

It took roughly two months to learn how to use comfyui, create loras to keep characters consistent, and create workflows that could reliably make the scenes that I wanted.

It took another month to make the 200 images I needed for this story, including copious amounts of touching them up on photoshop, and inpainting them, to the stage they are in now. All images in this game have gone through at least six stages of workflows to get to this stage.

It took two months to write the 100,000 words of dialogue AND simultaneously build the UI, which again, meant I was on photoshop for hours everyday.

I absolutely could have spent longer touching up each individual image. I could have spent months and months longer and the game would never have been released.

Instead I have made a game. I worked really hard to make it. I've released it. I'm really proud of it. I sincerely hope that people appreciate it, and enjoy it, and will continue to enjoy the updates. The images will continue to have AI artefacts and oddities in them because that's where we are now and I am still learning and growing as a creator. Personally I still think they look miles better than any of the rendered games on here, or games with jpgs ripped straight from porn, but if its not to your taste, that's fine. Onwards and upwards.

This certainly looks better than most updates in the feed, that why we clicked on it! I understand and empathise with this. I even confirm that having seen what some devs have put out with unedited AI and the way it looks it does appear that youve worked on it and for myself I think it'll more than do... Should remark though that at least some comments are not about the fact that it's AI generated nor how much time and effort you've put into it, but about what you've presented us... those who play AICGs regularly have gotten used to more or less perfectly corrected art.

 

[Himeros Studios]

Wish it didn't have to be shit london, then again, where else would this story fit haha.

Art seems aight. Concept seems sick and twisted.

Given it's a corruption story with secret societies etc I'm assuming the kinky tags coming once the story progresses...?

This certainly looks better than most updates in the feed, that why we clicked on it! I understand and empathise with this. I even confirm that having seen what some devs have put out with unedited AI and the way it looks it does appear that youve worked on it and for myself I think it'll more than do... Should remark though that at least some comments are not about the fact that it's AI generated nor how much time and effort you've put into it, but about what you've presented us... those who play AICGs regularly have gotten used to more or less perfectly corrected art.

Thanks for the kind words! Definitely still learning more and more every month about AI art (massive shoutout to the Pixaroma YouTube channel that taught me most of what I know, can highly recommend) and as I get better and the tools get better, will definitely retroactively improve old scenes when I have the time.

And yes, there will be lots of opportunity for corruption as the game progresses, will look to explore a lot more kinky stuff. I mean, Molly (the default name for the MC so what I've come to call her in my head) can already go from virgin to a girl who has slept with a drug dealer, her old teacher, and had an mmf threesome in the prologue alone so if you want to start the corruption early you can do, but I wanted to leave plenty of space for her to fall further throughout the story!

As for London, I definitely get what you mean not sure her visits to Josh up in Leeds will be much of an improvement either I've roughly planned a (very tentative) arc of the game divided into seasons and episodes, and Season One won't see her leave the UK, but there are definitely plans in later seasons as she falls into the orbit of more powerful players to visit more exotic locations...

 

[DaLuke2]

Waow, what a prologue. Really high quality. I really like the music too. This could become one the best AVNs ever developed, at the level of Eva Kiss' games.

 

[Himeros Studios]

Waow, what a prologue. Really high quality. I really like the music too. This could become one the best AVNs ever developed, at the level of Eva Kiss' games.

Thank you so much, it means a lot that you enjoyed it, and that is high praise indeed, I'll try to live up to it! Eva Kiss' games are definitely some of the best around I think, and played a big role in inspiring me to try my hand at this

 

[Buletti]

I am also a sucker for the "straight girl becomes a lesbian" arc

I am also one of those who would prefer the lesbian path from the start.

But it is your Story and I absolutely accept that. How long are you going to make that journey? Like will we be able to avoid dicks pretty quickly or is it more that it will take her whole Journey to discover at the end that she is into girls.

Also, are you planning more kinky routes like Dom/sub relationships or are you keeping it rather vanilla?

I wish you all the best for your Project. Kudos for taking this on in these fucked up times.

Cheers to you!

 

[knutknutssonknutssonsson]

I liked this a lot five stars from me for sure! Her is the path that I took I liked Mathilde the best I think but will play it again later

 

[Himeros Studios]

I am also one of those who would prefer the lesbian path from the start.

But it is your Story and I absolutely accept that. How long are you going to make that journey? Like will we be able to avoid dicks pretty quickly or is it more that it will take her whole Journey to discover at the end that she is into girls.

Also, are you planning more kinky routes like Dom/sub relationships or are you keeping it rather vanilla?

I wish you all the best for your Project. Kudos for taking this on in these fucked up times.

Cheers to you!

Thank you very much! After the initial (and quite literal) opening with a bang of the prologue, the story from now will slowly build up as the player descends into this new world she will discover. You will be able to pretty much avoid dicks totally from now on if you want (Josh likely won't be too happy but that's on him I guess...), although it might be a few releases before any of the lesbian paths build up to a full sex scene.

One of the reasons I wanted to do the prologue like I did is that most games that focus on good storytelling and writing take a bit of time to throw the player into the deep end, so I thought by playing through the entirety of Molly's sexual history at the beginning of the game, we get to avoid that classic dry spell of having no real sex scenes until 3-4 episodes in.

And yes there will be lots of D/s relationship options etc!

I liked this a lot five stars from me for sure! Her is the path that I took I liked Mathilde the best I think but will play it again later

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Thank you! Yes both that and Luca were two of my favourite to write, you have good taste!

 

[TLouis2]

Thank you very much! After the initial (and quite literal) opening with a bang of the prologue, the story from now will slowly build up as the player descends into this new world she will discover. You will be able to pretty much avoid dicks totally from now on if you want (Josh likely won't be too happy but that's on him I guess...), although it might be a few releases before any of the lesbian paths build up to a full sex scene.

One of the reasons I wanted to do the prologue like I did is that most games that focus on good storytelling and writing take a bit of time to throw the player into the deep end, so I thought by playing through the entirety of Molly's sexual history at the beginning of the game, we get to avoid that classic dry spell of having no real sex scenes until 3-4 episodes in.

And yes there will be lots of D/s relationship options etc!



Thank you! Yes both that and Luca were two of my favourite to write, you have good taste!

Please try to make all future sexual encounters avoidable. Thank you.

 

[Buletti]

Thank you very much! After the initial (and quite literal) opening with a bang of the prologue, the story from now will slowly build up as the player descends into this new world she will discover. You will be able to pretty much avoid dicks totally from now on if you want (Josh likely won't be too happy but that's on him I guess...), although it might be a few releases before any of the lesbian paths build up to a full sex scene.

One of the reasons I wanted to do the prologue like I did is that most games that focus on good storytelling and writing take a bit of time to throw the player into the deep end, so I thought by playing through the entirety of Molly's sexual history at the beginning of the game, we get to avoid that classic dry spell of having no real sex scenes until 3-4 episodes in.

And yes there will be lots of D/s relationship options etc!



Thank you! Yes both that and Luca were two of my favourite to write, you have good taste!

Thanks for that answer my friend.

I was expecting the star signs and the like to have an influence on kink preferences as well. Sounds good! You can add a section "planned tags" under "Genre" if you want to avoid too many questions about future content.

So since you say a lesbian playthrough from here on out is possible and since this is located in the UK, maybe Avaron1974 would like to note this down for later as well?

Again, best of luck with this. This is a pretty good start imho.

Cheers!

 

[PickerLewd]

Who says everyone under those robes and masks is a man?

Sorry, you're right . It's a prejudice that many of us have held for years: we don't expect to see a woman in a position of great power who dresses like the rest of the sect.

I'll consider it for my next game

Ironically, if you tried to do it, it would take much longer and involve a lot more work .

Imagine trying to draw each scene individually in Paint. It would take more than three times as long and the quality of the artwork would be much lower.

It's incredible how technology has advanced!

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I read your comments about the RPG mechanics you have in mind and that you liked Disco Elysium.

I liked what I read, but I'm worried that it will become a programming nightmare the further you progress in the game. With so many variations, you might also forget things.

If you feel overwhelmed, you can cheat and shift the responsibility onto the player by blaming it on their bad luck . For example, you could include a die roll or a coin toss .

Regarding Molly's sexuality, many people are asking for a lesbian route, but I would like to request the option of her being bisexual .

 

[IntoTheWoods]

Def looks interesting so far. A virgin route being added would be cool even if the relationship is still locked-in.

 

[McFarlane42]

Well I enjoy Himeros' other work, I'm definitely interested in this sort of venture as well. Good luck dev!

 

[Avaron1974]

So since you say a lesbian playthrough from here on out is possible and since this is located in the UK, maybe Avaron1974 would like to note this down for later as well?

If a lesbian route is being added I will absolutely keep my eye on it in the future.

Thanks for tagging me in, i'll stick it on my watch list.

 

[Bizzarini]

The prologue already includes over 100,000 words of dialogue

the story hadn't started yet I'm already burned